X-Men Apocolypse movie review

Hey all,
We're going to take a look at "X-Men: Apocolypse". First off, I want to say that it looks like Fox Studios is slowly embracing the comic roots of their franchises. "Deadpool" was a massive success by embracing the comic history and fun so now it seems that they tried to put a little of that in the X-Men franchise. Unfortunately, little is not enough.

Right off the back, the background story seems to be a rehash of previous X-men movies. Magneto is disgusted with the world and Professor X tries to stop his old friend and make him see the error of his ways.

The main story focuses on the new main villain, "Apocolypse". Apocolypse was a ruler from ancient Egypt and he was possibly the first mutant. His powers made him seem like a god back then and he was feared.  His subjects eventually revolted and he was sealed away for thousands of years. He awoke to the year 1983 where he found the world was ruled by lesser un-powered beings so he forms a small group called "The Four Horseman" to take over. Meanwhile, Professor X is expanding his school to include more mutant students and we meet the younger versions of the core X-Men. Eventually, the young X-Men must take on Apocoplypse and his Horsemen to save the world.

The new players were basically well played. I enjoyed the new actors who plays Storm, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and etc. While the returning actors did a great job in their established roles. I really enjoyed Olivia Munn as Psylocke. She was easily my favorite person/character in the movie. She looked the closest to her comic book counterpart playing the sexy but deadly mutant ninja (which is why you'll see more pics of her here).  You can also see that

Olivia is
having a lot of fun playing this character because it easily shows in her performance. I loved he costume and this was my favorite outfit of hers in the comic.

Another welcomed return was that of Quicksilver. He literally runs away with every scene that he's in and he quickly becomes and integral member of the team. We also get a quick cameo of Wolverine, his little side story was not well explained from the previous movie "X-Men:Days of Future past". His appearance was awesome but left more questions than what was answered. At least, this will serve as a bit of a taste in what we could expect in the final Wolverine movie with Hugh Jackman in that this was the bloodiest fight we've ever seen him in and it sounds like they want his final movie to have an "R" rating thanks to the success of the "Deadpool" movie.

A new addition that was cool and had the potential to be better was Jubilee. The actress did a good job but unfortunately there was too little of her and she didn't have much of an impact on the movie. I'm not sure what role she'll play if she even appears in new movies.

The major disappointments were that of Apocolypse himself. Physically he's not as intimidating or large as his comic counterpart. He doesn't show his true potential until the end of the film and even then it was still a little underwhelming. The other Disappointment was Mystique. Jennifer Lawrence returns to play Mystique but you could see that heart wasn't in it. She appeared disinterested and lacked the energy that she had in the past in the role.

As I mentioned in the beginning, the movie feels to be rehashing a to of the same stuff we've seen in the previous X-Men movies and at this point in 2016 we've seen quite a bit of superhero movie where hero has fought hero and ironically the four horsemen villains has spots filled by X-men heroes and now fills a bit old.

I think for the next movie, they should not hold back and totally embrace the comic roots. Have a new story that does not revolve around the Magneto/Professor X relationship, have more comic accurate/colorful costumes and a new director with a different vision. The Deadpool movie embraced it crazy comic roots and it paid off immensely. It set a new, higher bar that the X-men franchise has to meet.

My review on "X-Men:Days of Future Past"...

Wow! Simply wow! I saw the latest X-Men movie on memorial day and although I was eager to see it, I was still a little wary on what to expect due to the teasers and fanboy rants on other forums. But now I can honestly say that this concerns were not necessary. XDOFP is possibly the best X-Men movie yet and arguably the best comic movie of the year. Yep, even better than Captain America:Winter Soldier.

X-Men:DOFP

First off, I've read the original comic book story and it is a definite classic story that all comic fans should read. Although this movie is inspired by that storyline, there are notable differences that serves the movie tone better and I do like the unpredictability this causes. The main difference which isn't really a spoiler is that it's Wolverine that is sent back in time and not Kitty Pryde although she does play a big role in this movie.

So far, If you didn't hear it in the grapevine yet is that just about everyone who has seen this movie is raving about it. We have old characters working side by side with the new class characters along with brand new characters to the series. A lot of concerns going into this film is that this another Wolverine dominated story and to be honest, he does have a big role but he takes a back seat to Professor X, Magneto and even Mystique in this story. James McCavoy and Michael Fassbender literally becomes their characters and you feel their pain and frustration. Those two truly carry the movie but Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellan does their share of work and are fun to watch. It almost feels like they are passing the torch to their younger counter-parts. Jennifer Lawrence does a a fantastic job as Mystique to the point that you forget about the Rebecca Romain version. Peter Dinklage does a great job as Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels and reason the human race will become extinct. Although he is supposed to be a villain he doesn't come off as truly evil, which is a cool thing.  Hugh Jackman is Wolverine, Nuff said!

Ok, I have to say more about his performance...Hugh Jackman does a phenomenal job as Wolverine and you can see why he is the backbone to the X-Men franchise. He knows when to carry a scene and when to back off and let others shine and the script lets him do this very well. Another notable mention is Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters. Before this movie came out there was a huge outrage over this character when we saw a picture of him and folks already had the opinion that this would hurt the movie and even I had doubts. But, I am happy to say we were all wrong cause this character was awesome! Quicksilver had possibly the most memorable scenes and the performance was fun and exciting. It's kind of ironic in the character most people despised is now the one you'll want to see more of.

In closing, the story itself is pretty simple to follow with some cool twists and the payoff at the end is very satisfying as you see some familiar faces making a return. I'm not going to give any spoilers but lets just say that things they we had a problem with in the series, kinda gets fixed. I would highly recommend seeing this movie and not just stop there but get the blue ray/dvd when it becomes available because you'll want to see it again multiple times!

MY RATING
 * See it now * 
 Rent it
 Forget about it

X-Men